Review: Adele offers heartbreak, wisdom and salty banter at long-delayed Las Vegas residency
The first time Adele did a residency show, in June of 2016, it was in New Orleans. She was just 16 years old and fresh off the back of her 2013 album, 21 at last month’s Billboard Music Awards. With a brand new album and a huge world tour underway, she was just weeks away from taking the stage to sing her heart out at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
But that’s not really all of Adele’s history, which has been very sparse. During the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, she dropped a new song called “Cameo,” but then nothing else happened. After that, when she was still only an indie pop star, she disappeared from the public eye for 13 long months.
And then came Friday Night Lights in Dallas, a live concert that was a return to the stage where she really started to blossom–not that far back, either, because it was in 2011 and she was just 19 years old. Last year she also released new music in the form of new album, 25, and it was the first album since 2014’s 25 that really spoke to the world. But it’s also the first Adele album to be released without any major promotion.
Then Friday Night Lights happened, and things changed.
Adele and longtime boyfriend Simon Konecki welcomed their first son, due to arrive in May. They announced that decision in a series of Instagram posts, which included a photo of him sleeping next to her on a giant bed. She also went on the road with her own ad hoc rock band, while also preparing for the birth of a child.
To the untrained observer, Adele was on fire. She was the voice of an unprecedented and growing legion of female
